Caspase-11 cleaves gasdermin D for non-canonical inflammasome signalling

Intracellular lipopolysaccharide from Gram-negative bacteria including Escherichia coli, Salmonella typhimurium, Shigella flexneri, and Burkholderia thailandensis activates mouse caspase-11, causing pyroptotic cell death, interleukin-1β processing, and lethal septic shock. How caspase-11 executes these downstream signalling events is largely unknown. Here we show that gasdermin D is essential for caspase-11-dependent pyroptosis and interleukm-1β maturation. A forward genetic screen with ethyl-N-nitrosourea-mutagenized mice links Gsdmd to the intracellular lipopolysaccharide response. Macrophages from [Gsdmd.sup.-/-] mice generated by gene targeting also exhibit defective pyroptosis and interleukin-1β secretion induced by cytoplasmic lipopolysaccharide or Gram-negative bacteria. In addition, [Gsdmd.sup.-/-] mice are protected from a lethal dose of lipopolysaccharide. Mechanistically, caspase-11 cleaves gasdermin D, and the resulting amino-terminal fragment promotes both pyroptosis and NLRP3-dependent activation of caspase-1 in a cell-intrinsic manner. Our data identify gasdermin D as a critical target of caspase-11 and a key mediatorof the host response against Gram-negative bacteria.
Cytoplasmic caspase-11 (also known as caspase-4) defines the non-canonical inflammasome that is activated by various Gram-negative bacterial infections and causes infected cells to die by pyroptosis (1-4). Caspase-11 also triggers [...]